#ziplock60

The intrepid band take their first steps into a crypt. The leader, a Paladin by the name of Jorge, lights a torch and looks around. “This looks like the place. Come on.” He leads them along a corridor, stopping at a large stone door. “...Inqueth, you still have that scroll from the den of sorrow?” The Wizard behind him nods and steps forwards, passing a scroll to the paladin.

  Jorge gives his torch to the wizard in return, opening the scroll and holding it up next to a symbol on the door. The writings of the scroll and the symbol match almost exactly. “This is it. Khadre, give me a hand with this door, would you?” he places the scroll back into the wizard’s satchel, readying alongside the dwarven fighter. In unison, they push at the door and it slowly begins opening. The two of them catch their breath, the paladin takes back his torch, and then the group storms the room.

  Khadre is the first to speak. “...It’s empteh.” Sure enough, the group was in a large, empty room. It seemed more like a cavern through here, the rock roughly-hewn. Nala signs something and the group’s ranger nods. “Like Nala said. Where’s the great treasure the scroll promised?”

  “It has to be here somewhere.” Jorge says, starting to walk around the room. “No one could find this crypt without the instructions we got from the Voice of the Mountain.”

  “It is not exactly the best-hidden place in the world, you have to admit.” Inqueth counters. “’Hidden under a great tree’, perhaps. But that great tree collapsed centuries ago.” she shrugs. “The power here may well have been looted long before now.”

  “No, no, it has t...” Jorge spins towards his allies. “...Weren’t there six of us?” The group looks at one another, counting. They pause. “Where’s Krysta?”

  “Damn it, where’d that Bard get to this time? Ay swear, if she’s ‘entertainin’ the brothel’ again, I’ll...” Khadre pauses and looks down. There was a violin on the ground, in front of his feet. “...We migh’ have a bit of a problem.” He picks up the violin, gently. The wood was wet, sticky. He holds his fingers up to the torch. Blood. “...Ack, damn it. I liked that half-elf.”

  “Where did she go? What happened to her? What was in ” Jorge takes a step towards the group, before hearing a sharp whistling noise. He stops in place.

  Lenara walks over to the blade embedded in the wall. “Hah. A pretty simple trap. But effective, by the looks of things. We’re lucky it didn’t hit any of us.” She glances over at the paladin. “Jorge?” The human opens his mouth to speak, before falling over backwards. His legs fall forwards a moment later. “JORGE!” She runs over to the knight, taking in the sight towards her. “Oh gods. Olidammara save us. What have we walked into...”

  Inqueth looks around. A missing bard, and a dead paladin. Things weren’t looking good. “Everyone, get back to the entrance. Something is happening here, and we need to get out, now.” Lenara picks up the torch, and the group takes off running. Four, where there had been six. They leave the room, trying to head straight back to the entrance. They get halfway there, when the ground beneath them collapses. The four fall straight down, landing twenty feet further down. The four groan in pain. Inqueth’s ankle hurts; just sprained. Khadre, the dwarf, rolls over and rubs the back of his helmet. Nala slides off the wall, helping Lenara to her feet. She signs to the ranger, and she nods. “Nala says she can see a path straight ahead of us. There’s no way back up that pit, but we might be able to find another way out.”

  Khadre gets to his feet, shaking himself off. “Ye okay, wizard?” The other two start stepping ahead, scouting out the pathway. The dwarf starts helping Inqueth to her feet when the upper walls of the room smash inwards, inches above his head. The two drop to the ground.

  “Damn it, what sort of crypt is this?! Nala, Lenara, are you okay? Did ye..” he stops speaking when he notices the bodies ahead of him, the torch next to them. Inches above a dwarf’s head. Inches below an elf’s neck. He punches the ground. “Gods damn it! Wizard, tell me you’re still with me.”

  Inqueth nods, shaking. “I-I am alright. They...they said there was a corridor that way. We may yet find a way out.” The two set off crawling, no longer trusting the walls of the room. They pass the bodies of their friends, collecting their torches and continuing on. A few minutes later, they stand up in a new, open corridor.

    “Smell that, wizard? That’s fresh air. We’re close to a way out.” The two had been walking for close to an hour. They’d both nearly been killed by traps, but had managed to evade them with a mixture of Khadre’s reflexes and Inqueth’s magic. The wizard smiles at Khadre’s words.

  “Really? We are close?”

  He nods. “We’re close. We just need to...” The two of them come to an open, stone door. “We’ve been ‘ere. That means...” The two of them look along the corridor, seeing the pit trap in the distance. And if there was the pit trap, then that meant that across the trap...was freedom. They both start moving towards it, only stopping when they reach the edge of the pit. “That’s a long jump. I dun suppose you know how to fly, wizard?”

  She shakes her head. “No. I have not yet learnt magic of that magnitude. We need to find another way across.” The dwarf draws his greataxe and throws it, the blade landing firmly in the packed earth at the other side, just beneath the stonework.

  “If you think ye’ll fall short, aim for the handle.” She nods. It was a long jump, to be sure. But...their lives depended on it. “You go first. You’ve got longer legs. If anyone’s going to make it, it’s you.” She kneels down and kisses the dwarf’s cheek.

  “Thank you.” The wizard gets to her feet, stepping away from the trap, then runs full-speed at it. She jumps, soars...and falls short. She grabs hold of the axe handle, gasping as the landing knocks the wind from her lungs. She could do this. She brings one hand higher up on the axe’s shaft, then the other. She could make it. She grabs hold of the ledge. And she pulls herself up. She gets to her feet, looking over at the dwarf. “Now you! Come on, I can catch you.” She holds her arms out.

  The dwarf blinks. “You...I said to go! Ye don’t need to stay for me, wizard.”

  Inqueth snorts. “Dwarves. The single most stubborn creature I have ever encountered. If you do not jump over, then I am going to come back there and carry you over myself.”

  “Nobody carries a dwarf!” He takes a few steps back, then runs at the wizard. He leaps over the gap, coming close, and landing squarely in her arms. She grabs him, pulling him over the ledge and on to the land.

“Infuriating. Come on. We can still get out of here.”

  “Inqueth...thank you.” The dwarf nods and smiles at the spellcaster, taking a step away from the ledge. His ankle is impaled, pinned to the ground, and he screams. Inqueth’s eyes widen as she sees the creature climb from the pit, strange blade arms clicking dangerously against one another. It fades in and out of view, blending into the background. She steps away from the dwarf. “Wizard!” She shakes her head, and the blades move closer to the dwarf. “Don’t give it the satisfaction!”

  She pulls out her wand of fireball, shouting the spell word, “Incendere” as the creature’s blades descend towards Kharon. The flame engulfs predator and prey, incinerating them both, and she turns to run. She turns to the exit, climbing the great stone steps towards the remains of the fallen oak. She pushes open the trapdoor, climbs into the sun. She keeps running, trying to get away from that foul place. She almost makes it. Blades stab upwards through the dirt. She leaps the first set. Then another set stab through. She trips, the blade slicing open the side of her leg. So she crawls. The next set of blade arms hit her in the stomach, hooking into her skin. More blades stab through to the surface, cutting through the dirt and through her. She’s dragged down into the nest. Her hands reach out, trying to grab a weapon, a tool, anything to help. Her hands wrap around a small piece of wood.